“I enjoyed retirement the right way — linguine con vongole, red wine and plenty of truffle cheese. It was my Orson Welles stage. I feel like a French woman.

“I didn’t leave to do anything else, I left to leave.

“I thought late-night was crowded … the formats repetitive. I achieved my goals, and it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. My job is done here. I’m going to miss my best friends — my cameras.”

Mike Gibbons, head writer on Kilborn’s CBS show: “He was totally bored. He’d much rather do his comedy and not deal with three guests a night promoting their wares.”

ESPN Executive Editor John Walsh on Kilborn: “He worked real hard, especially in the beginning. He liked sports, but at a certain point and time he was going to move on. … He wanted a career that didn’t necessarily match up with ESPN and ‘Sports Center.’”

Flint reports, “about halfway through his time at ESPN, Kilborn came to Walsh with a script for a sitcom he wanted to pursue.”

Kilborn on why perhaps he hasn’t gone mainstream: “I don’t do well around the angry, bitter and emotionally fragile among us, which may eliminate 70% of the population. They say comedy comes from a dark place. Maybe 95% of the time it does, but it doesn’t for me. I’m a down-to-earth guy.” Read more…